Tolland Graduate Dan Burbank Makes Safe Return

A graduate and former professor at the service academy has safely returned to Earth.

MSNBC reports that Dan Burbank, who was the commander of Expedition 30 aboard the International Space Station, landed in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz spacecraft at 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, April 27. Also aboard the Soyuz were cosomonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin. Burbank has been aboard the ISS since November.

Burbank, who is a Tolland High School graduate and currently resides in Yarmouthport, Mass., graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1985 with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. He is a retired Coast Guard captain who taught engineering at the academy between 2007 and 2009. Burbank also earned a master of science degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1990.

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Burbank has worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in both the Astronaut Office Operations Planning Branch and International Space Station Branch and as a spacecraft communicator for space shuttle and ISS missions. The ISS mission marks his third trip into space, following voyages as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle in 2000 and 2006.

While on the ISS, Burbank as well as .